A Collection of Many Problems

Hats off to Virtualpolitik pal Garnet Hertz for the wonderful volume he has produced, A Collection of Many Problems, which includes a lavishly illustrated set of "secrets and experiments in Informaticks, Geometry, Cosmography, Horologiography, Astronomy, Navigation, Musick, Opticks, Architecture, Statick, Mechanicks, Chymistry, Water-Works, Fireworks & c." My colleague Julia Lupton has written about the phenomenon of academic self-publishing, and this book from Lulu is priced at a modest $7.78, which takes a much smaller bite out of one's wallet than most books by new media artists.

The book also taps into the Zeitgeist of academic interest in "dead media," whether it is N. Katherine Hayles' current work on the telegraph, Norman Klein's galleries of images of antiquated media practices, Erik Kluitenberg's theorizing about "media archeology," or Nick Montfort and Ian Bogost's launch of a scholarly series on "platform studies."

You can check out more images here.